Two Journeys, One Path
by Sanura Bey
Summary: Sarah had a friend who knew more than she's said. Jareth knows her from a shared past. There's more than meets the eye with Nikol and she could make things easier for Sarah, or much harder.
1. The Journey Begins

I sat at a bench in the park with Merlin next to me as a young girl ran towards us wearing a medieval type dress, her dark hair done in a simple up do. I smiled at her as I continued my drawing, my blonde hair braided down my back and my crystal blue eyes going from the page to her.

"Give me the child. Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great…" thunder rolled above us causing her to look up for a moment. She looked back down at us and thought about what she was supposed to say. "For my will is as strong as yours…my kingdom is great…Damn! I can never remember that line." I stood and smiled at her as she pulled a book out of her pocket and opened it. I looked up at the snowy barn owl who was watching us and sighed before looking at her again. "You have no power over me." She read as thunder rolled again and Merlin barked at her. "Oh, Merlin."

"Hey Sarah, I have the picture you wanted me to draw for you." I told her, handing her my sketch pad.

"That's perfect Ella." She told me with a smile on her face. She'd asked me to draw her a labyrinth with a castle at the center of it for her to easily picture when she acted it out. Behind us the clock in the tower began to chime 7:00pm. "Oh no! I don't believe it! It's 7:00! Come on! Come one!" The three of us raced to her house quickly as it started to rain on us. When we finally got to her house we were soaked to the bone and her stepmother was standing on the porch waiting for Sarah. "Oh, it's not fair!"

"Oh really?" her mother asked. "Don't stand there in the rain." She ordered ushering us inside.

"All right. Come on, Merlin, Ella." Sarah said moving inside with her dog.

"Not the dog!" her mother told her.

"But it's pouring!" Sarah complained.

"Go on! Into the garage." Her mother ordered the dog.

"Oh! Go on, Merlin. Go into the garage, go!" Sarah said and the dog listened to her and left for the garage as we headed into the house with her step mother behind us.

"Sarah, you're an hour late." Her mother told her as Sarah started up the stairs and I waited away from either of them.

"I said I was sorry." She reminded her stepmother.

"Please let me finish." Her stepmother told her and Sarah stopped to listen to her. "Your father and I go out very rarely."

"You go out every single weekend!" Sarah interrupted.

"And I ask you to baby-sit only if it won't interfere with your plans." Her stepmother told her.

"Well how do you know? You don't know what my plans are, you don't even ask me anymore." Sarah reminded her mother.

"Well, I assume you'd tell me. I'd like it if you had dates, you should have dates at your age." Her mother told her as her father stepped onto the steps behind Sarah before she made her way to her room.

"We were worried about you." Her father told her.

"I can't do anything right, can I?!" she asked storming to her room.

"Excuse me." I whispered before following her. I grabbed some towels from the bathroom and gave one to her before she changed into jeans and a shirt. She sat at her desk and complained about her step mother and half-brother.

"Sarah, Toby is a baby. You can't blame him for who his mother is." I told her sitting on her bed in my long skirt and blouse. I'd left some clothes here a few weeks back and was thankful for it now.

"I don't care." She said angrily and I sighed as she started her music box and placed a crown on her head and her lipstick. "Through dangers untold…and hardships unnumbered…I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city…to take back the child that you have stolen." Someone knocked on the door as she was about to put the lipstick on and she sighed.

"Sarah? Could I talk to you?" her father asked her and she threw off the crown.

"There's nothing to talk about! You better hurry or you're gonna be late." She told him trying to get him to leave.

"We've fed Toby and put him to bed. We'll be back around midnight." He told her before leaving her door.

"You really wanted to talk to me didn't you? Practically broke down the door." She asked sarcastically before laying on the bed next to me.

"Sarah…" I started saying when she looked at the shadowbox where multiple stuffed animals of hers were safe and treasured.

"Lancelot! Someone has been in my room again. I hate that! I hate it." She rose from the bed and stormed out of her room with me right behind her.

"Sarah!" I called after her into her parents' room. Toby, her brother, was crying in his crib staring over the side. Sarah and I ran in and saw her stuffed bear lying on the floor where Toby, most likely, had thrown him.

"I hate you! I hate you! Someone save me, someone take me away from this awful place." Sarah begged no one as the storm outside continued to build and Toby cried louder. "What do you want? Do you want a story? Huh?" she asked him sitting on her parents' bed.

"Sarah, be nicer to him. He's just a baby." I told her.

"Ok. Once upon a time there was a beautiful young girl who's stepmother always made her stay home with the baby." She started saying and I rolled my eyes. "And the baby was a spoiled child and he wanted everything for himself, and the young girl was practically a slave. But what no one knew was that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl and he had given her certain powers. So one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel to her she asked the goblins for help. "Say your right words," the Goblin's said, "And we'll take the baby to the Goblin City and you will be free." But the girl knew that the king of the goblins would keep the baby in his castle forever and ever, and turn it into a goblin. So she suffered in silence until one night when she was tired from a day of housework and hurt by the harsh words of her stepmother and she could no longer stand it." I almost held my breath as Toby continued to cry for her. "Oh, all right! All right!" she said before picking him up out of his crib."Knock it off. Come on. Stop it! Stop it! I'll say the words. No, I mustn't. I mustn't say…" she said.

"Sarah. He's afraid of the thunder, that's all." I told her as she bounced him up and down.

"I wish…I wish…" she said after a moment.

"Sarah, be careful what you say." I told her worried. Those words were sometimes deadly.

"I can bear no longer! Goblin King! Goblin King! Wherever you may be, take this child of mine far away from me!" she said and I sighed with relief. "Oh, Toby, stop it! I wish I did know what to say to make the goblins take you away." Sarah said before putting Toby back in his crib.

"Don't worry about it Sarah. Sibling rivalry is normal." I told her as Toby continued to cry as we walked to the door.

"I wish the goblins would come and take him away…" she said as I passed her and I quickly turned to her in shock and fear. "Right now." She started to walk away and the crying stopped.

"Oh no." I whispered.

"Toby?" Sarah asked making her way back to him and his crib. "Toby, are you all right? Why aren't you crying? TOBY?" she asked. There was a strange laughter from the crib which made her gasp at the unfamiliar sound. When she was finally at the cribs side she tore the blanket and the crib was empty causing her to gasp once more. Sarah heard laughing around her and turned to try and see who else was in the room.

"It's too late" I told her. "You summoned him, you stupid girl."

"What are you talking about?" she asked me as the store grew worse and the snowy owl from before tried to get in through the glass doors.

"What do you think I'm talking about? Who were you just talking about? Who did you just wish your brother taken by?" I asked her finally walking to her and she tore her eyes from the owl to me with wide eyes just before the door burst open and a man stood in the door way. He wore an old time noble man's poet shirt that ended with black gloves on his hands and tight pants tucked into black knee high boots. He wore a black cloak over his shoulders with a high collar nearly reaching to the top of his while blonde hair and stared at her with his blue eyes.

"You're him aren't you? You're the Goblin King." Sarah asked and he said nothing. "I want my brother back if it's all the same."

"What's said is said." He told her.

"But, I didn't mean it." She lied but he and I knew better.

"Oh, you didn't?" he asked her sarcastically.

"Please, where is he?" he asked her. His eyes finally caught mine as I tried to hide in the shadows and he was just as shocked to see me as I knew he would be.

"You know very well where he is." Jareth told her.

"Please bring him back, please." She begged him.

"Sarah…go back to your room. Play with your toys and costumes…forget about the baby." He told her.

"I can't." she told him.

"I've brought you a gift." He said holding up one of his hands and materialized a crystal.

"What is it?" she asked him curiously.

"It's a crystal, nothing more. But if you turn it this way," he said as he started rolling the crystal between his arms with many centuries of practiced skill, "and look into it, it will show you your dreams. But this isn't a gift for an ordinary girl who takes care of a screaming baby. Do you want it? Then forget the baby."

"I can't. I appreciate what you're offering, but I want my brother back. He must be so scared." She said.

"Sarah…" he said as he stopped moving the crystal, turning it to a snake. "Don't defy me." He threw the snake at her and I quickly moved to help throw it off her. It had turned into a scarf and we threw it to the ground to reveal a goblin who laughed and ran away from us. Behind us the goblin's laughed and Sarah tried to see them but they quickly hid from her. "You're no match for me, Sarah." He told her.

"I need my brother back." She insisted again.

"He's there, in my castle." Jareth said pointing beyond the doors. Where the city had once been now stood the Labyrinth with a grand castle in the center. He used his magic to transport us there without either of being able to tell with the exception of the view. "Do you still want to look for him?" he asked her.

"Is that the castle beyond the Goblin City?" she asked him and I could detect her amazement at finally seeing the thing she'd been dreaming about since I gave her that book.

"Turn back, Sarah. Turn back before it's too late." He told her.

"I can't. Don't you understand that I can't?" she asked him.

"What a pity." He said.

"It doesn't look that far." She said and I rolled my eyes.

"It's further than you think, and time is short." He waved a gloved hand and a clock with 13, the normal day in the Underground, appeared. "You have 13 hours in which to solve the Labyrinth before your baby brother becomes one of us, forever."

"Jareth please, give her more time." I begged placing my hands on his arm.

"I can't, you know this. The ancient laws are set." He told me.

"You can bend them. We both know this to be true." I said, begging him once more with my eyes.

"On one condition, you come with me to the castle. Be my guest until she retrieves her brother." He told me and I turned to Sarah who shook her hair at me.

"Fine." I agreed. "I'll stay at the castle with you." He smirked at me and wrapped his arm around my waist before looking to Sarah once more. Then I realized, he knew I would agree with his terms to ehlp Sarah because he'd been watching us for who knows how long.

"You have one week to solve the Labyrinth and find your brother and win back your friend. Such a pity." He said using his magic to make us disappear from where we had been to the castel.

"The Labyrinth." Sarah said looking at the structure in front of her. "It doesn't look that hard. Well…come on feet." She then began her week long journey by heading to the Labyrinth that had held such wonder for her for a few years now.


	2. Nikol's Memories and Sarah's Troubles

When Sarah got to the outside of the Labyrinth she walked on a man peeing into a pool humming to himself.

"Excuse me?" she asked startling him.

"Oh! Excuse me." He said zipping up his fly and turning to see her revealing he was a dwarf. "Oh, it's you."

"Can you help me get through this Labyrinth?" she asked him hopefully.

"Hmm…" he said continuing the job the king had ordered him to do along with.

"Oh, how sweet." Sarah said seeing the fairies flying around next to the wall.

"57!" the dwarf said happily.

"How could you?!" Sarah asked shocked.

"Ugh!" he groaned while she picked up the fairy.

"Poor thing." She said looking at it before looking to the dwarf. "You monster! Ow!" she quickly dropped the fairy and held her hand to her chest. "It bit me."

"Ha! What did you expect fairies to do?" he asked her.

"I thought they'd do nice things…like granting wishes." She told him showing her naivety.

"Shows what you know, don't it?" he told her before spraying another one. "58!"

"You're horrible!" she told him.

"No, I ain't. I'm Hoggle. Who are you?" Hoggle asked her.

"Sarah."

"That's what I thought." He said before spraying another fairy. "59!"

"Do you know where the door to the Labyrinth is?" she asked him getting back on track of what she was here to do.

"Maybe." He told her cryptically.

"Well…where is it?" she asked him.

"Oh, you little…" Hoggle said before spraying a fairy. "60!"

"I said where is it?" she asked getting angry.

"Where is what?" he asked her.

"The door!" she yelled.

"What door?" he asked her.

"It's hopeless asking you anything." She said.

"Not if you ask the right questions." He informed her.

"How do I get into the Labyrinth?" she asked him.

"Ah! Now that's more like it. You gets in….there." Hoggle told her pointing to where the door was now opening for her. "You really going in there, are you?"

"Yes, I'm afraid I have to." She told him before going in and looking both ways.

"Cozy isn't it?" he asked her from behind making her jump and him laugh. "Now, would you go left or right?"

"They both look the same to me." She told him double checking both ways.

"Well, you're not going to get very far." He said.

"Which way would you go?" she asked him.

"Me? I wouldn't go either way." he told her.

"If that's all the help you're gonna me you can just leave." She told him.

"You know your problem? You take too much for granted. Take this Labyrinth…even if you reach the center you'll never get out again." He pointed out.

"That's your opinion." She said.

"Well it's a lot better than yours." He told her.

"Thanks for nothing Howart." She said getting his name wrong.

"Oh! It's Hoggle, and don't say I didn't warn you. Yeah." He stormed off, slamming the doors behind him.

* * *

Jareth and I reappeared in a large beautiful room at looked extremely familiar. On one side of the room was a small sitting area next to a window overlooking the gardens, and on the other side was a large bed four poster bed with sheer red curtain going around it. I knew the sheets would be a deep red with a bed frame covered in different colored flowers. The furniture was a deep mahogany wood with accents of red thrown about.

"I only allowed them in to clean. This room hasn't changed in a century." He told me finally removing his arm from my waist. I walked to the wardrobe and opened it to reveal all my dresses. I ran my hand over them as memories fly over my eyes. "You can take the glamour off now." I turned back to him and nodded removing the glamour I'd had on for so long. I took my hair down from the braid as it grew to my waist, my eyes stayed the same blue as before, my ears pointed out and I grew taller than your average human teenager. I was just tall enough for Jareth to place his head on mine comfortably. Before I'd left I'd been an Elf Princess in an arranged marriage to my best friend, but certain events forced my hand. "We thought you died." He told me.

"Well, I didn't." I pointed out.

"Change. Then meet me in the throne room." He ordered before walking out of the room. I turned back to the wardrobe and decided on a dark blue dress with silver embroidery the collar and a belt of silver disks that were the size of my palm that fell in front of the dress. My put my hair partially back before braiding it. I took a deep breathe before finally leaving the room. I made my way down a familiar corridors to the throne room. Jareth was sitting in his throne, one leg thrown over the side, tapping his a riding crop on his leg thinking. I walked to him, avoiding the large circular portion in the middle of the ground, and waited for him to notice me. It didn't take him long before he straightened up and stood. He offered me a hand and I took it walking with him. I look around at the portraits that were hung on the stone walls. I didn't recognize some of them.

"Who are these people?" I asked him.

"Royals from other kingdoms send portraits when they ascend the throne." He told me and I nodded my understanding. Fae had a lot of pride in who we were and how our world worked. The human's may be more advanced technologically, but we held fast to our ways of thinking and survived thousands of years Aboveground before hiding Underground when we had started to fade because of the other race. Once portrait stopped me in my tracks making Jareth stop as well. The portrait was of two women one with blond hair one with black both with the same crystal blue eyes. One of them wore a white dress with golden embroidery making beautiful flower patterns. The other had a black dress with red embroidery making darker flowers. They were twins and this portrait had never been taken with both of them.

"Where did you get this?" I asked him shocked.

"Your parents sent it to me not long after your death." He told me. They had it made? But why? My sister and I were almost exactly how we looked, like night and day. Even out magic was different: light and darkness. I followed Jareth once more until we were outside in the gardens. I didn't notice him stop walking as I admired the beauty in front of me. One thing about the Goblin Kingdom that no one knew was that the gardens were the most beautiful you'd see anywhere. Even more so than the Elves. The grass was soft and the flowers were overflowing. No runner ever saw this beauty, only the horrors of the land. Then again, most runners didn't want the children they wish away. I walked to a bench I knew well and sat on it overlooking the beauty. Jareth soon joined me and I smiled at the familiarity.

"Nothing has changed." I said.

"They have." He told me. "They bloom brighter with you here. They always have." I looked at him as he stared out at the garden.

"They seem as beautiful as ever to me." I said rising and moving to the closest bush before a thought struck me. "Shall we play a game?" I asked him with a mischievous smile.

"Nikol, we are not children." He told me.

"No, we aren't." I agreed. "But just because we are not children doesn't mean we can't still play as we did then." I told him backing away from him into the part the labyrinth that met the gardens. I ran away from him not knowing if he would follow me or just go back to his castle.

* * *

In another part of the labyrinth, Sarah was walking in the direction she'd chosen for hours, but as she walked she noticed something off.

"What do they mean "Labyrinth"? There aren't any turns or corners or anything. This just goes on and on." She said before pausing, remembering Hoggle's words to her earlier. "Maybe it doesn't. Maybe I'm just taking for granted that it does." She began to run, but she still found no turns so she stopped and started beating her hands against the walls in frustration before falling to sit leaning against one of the walls.

"'Ello." She looked beside her to see a worm staring at her with a smile.

"Did you say Hello?" she asked him confused.

"No, I said 'Ello, but that's close enough." He told her.

"You're a worm, aren't you?" she asked him turning to him.

"Yeah, that's right." He confirmed.

"Do you know the way through this Labyrinth?" she asked hopeful.

"Me? No, I'm just a worm." He told her.

"Oh." She said downcast.

"Come inside and meet the Mrs." He invited her.

"No, thank you. But I have to solve this Labyrinth. There aren't any turns or openings, it just goes on and on." She said looking at the two directions on either side of her.

"It's full of openings, it's just you ain't seen 'em." He told her.

"Where are they?" she asked him.

"There's one right in front of you." He told her.

"No, there isn't." she insisted.

"Come inside and have a nice cup of tea." He told her.

"But there isn't an opening." She said looking at the wall in front of her.

"Of course there is. Try walking through it, you'll see what I mean." The worm told her.

"What?" she asked him.

"Go on, then." He told her.

"That's just a wall, there's no way through." She told him.

"Things aren't always what they seem in this place, so you can't take anything for granted." She slowly stood and walked to the wall with her hands out. She took a deep breathe before walking through what she thought was a wall. "Hey!" she said smiling back at the worm before moving towards the left corridor.

"Hey! Hang on!" the worm called back to her and she came back to him.

"Thank you. That was incredibly helpful." She told him starting down the same path.

"But don't go that way!" he told her.

"What was that?" she asked coming back to him.

"Don't go that way. Never go that way!" he told her.

"Oh! Thanks!" she told him turning and going right.

"If she had kept on going down that way, she'd have gone straight to that castle." The worm said after she left shaking his head.

* * *

Three small children ran around the labyrinth laughing as their parents' spoke of things none of the children cared for.

"Sister! Where are we going?" the brunette girl asked her twin.

"You'll see sister." The blonde called to her twin as they all ran.

"Nikol! Nikette!" the young boy called to the two girls. "Why must we run?"

"We must run to fly!" I called to him opening her arms and laughing with her companions. When we finally stopped running we were in a field of flowers surrounding a large apple tree. The flowers ranged in colors from white to reds and blue with every shade in between. The boy and Nikette looked up in awe having never seen this place before.

"How did you find this?" the young boy asked.

"She showed me the way." I said smiling at the duo.

"Who?" Nikette asked.

"The Labyrinth." I said before running into the flowers with the two of them soon following. We spent the rest of the day playing and just being children when our parents called for us back at the castle. We ran back to them and stood at the sides of our parents.

"We will return to our kingdom and discuss everything with our advisors, but I see our plans solidifying within the next few years." My father told the boy's parents.

"Good." The Goblin King said before looking down at the three children. "We will be seeing you again, Nikol, Nikette." Both my sister and I curtsied to the King and his son before turning with our parents to leave.

* * *

I ran to the clearing we'd found as children and went to the tree before leaning on it and looking around at the field. Nothing had changed except for the circumstance why I was back here. I smiled before sitting in the flowers. I'd spent most of the day running and walking to this place. I picked one of the flowers and smelt it before smiling at the memories of this place. I looked out into the sunset and watched it lower itself into the horizon.

"This is where you choose to hid?" I looked behind me to see Jareth looking down at me.

"I'm surprised you followed me." I told him as he joined me in the flowers. "I'd have thought you went back to your duties."

"Do you remember when you first showed us this place?" he asked me.

"Of course. It wasn't long after that we discovered what they'd been planning for us that day." I told him.

"A treaty between the kingdoms solidified by marriage." He told me. He then stood and offered me his hand. "Come." I took his offered hand and he used his magic to take us back to the castle.

* * *

In the labyrinth, Sarah had set up a small place to sleep and she stared up at the castle from a distance and could hear her brother crying.

"Toby. I'm coming, Toby." She promised him before laying down preparing to sleep. She was just about the drift off when she heard a noise coming her way. She quickly sat up and tried to hide herself in the wall as much as possible.

"Who's there?" a male voice called out, but she didn't answer. "I know you're there human. Just tell me who you are."

"Sarah." She finally revealed.

"I'm Marcus." He introduced coming closer to her. He had dark hair and eyes and was well built.

"Why are you here?" she asked him.

"Penance for my crimes against the throne." He told her sitting across from her.

"What'd you do?" she asked him.

"I let the princess the king was to marry die." He told her. She looked at him confused. "I was her guard and during a large battle during the last war I left her in a room alone and the enemy snuck in and killed her."

"Who was the enemy?" she asked him.

"I don't know." He answered. "One minute she was fine then next she was gone."

"Gone?" she asked him confused.

"The body of an Elf in a valuable thing, even dead." He told her. "Why you a runner?"

"I wished my little brother away. I was just so angry at everything and blamed him for it." She said looking down at her feet.

"But you regret it?" he asked her and she nodded. "Then she'll know."

"Who will?" she asked him.

"The labyrinth."


End file.
